Elizabeth May, other anti-pipeline protesters should be criminally charged: judge

Green Party of Canada Leader Elizabeth May and Burnaby-South NDP MP Kennedy Stewart may be facing criminal contempt of court charges following an appearance at B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver Monday.

The pair were arrested with nearly two dozen others on March 23 for violating a court injunction that required them to stay five metres from Kinder Morgan’s two terminal sites on Burnaby Mountain where crews were working on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

Work was suspended on Sunday, when Kinder Morgan officials said they were halting all “non-essential” construction, citing the B.C. government’s opposition to the project.

“As a matter of law, the conduct alleged is criminal contempt,” Justice Kenneth Affleck told lawyer Trevor Shaw, who was representing the attorney general of B.C., in regards to the 25 people awaiting charges on Monday.

“These are matters of public importance in which the attorney general ought to intervene and take over. They ought not to be left in the hands of Trans Mountain.”

Kinder Morgan’s legal counsel Maureen Killoran told Affleck the company had filed civil charges in an attempt to bring the case to the court’s attention, but was happy to have them converted to criminal ones.

“This is not a dispute between the respondents and Trans Mountain, it is a dispute between the court and the respondents,” Killoran said.

Addressing the gallery, Affleck made it clear that his forthcoming judgment was not a “moral” judgment on Trans Mountain.

“These trials are limited to the issue if there has been criminal contempt of court; has there been public defiance of an order of this court?” Affleck said.

“This trial is not about whether the work done by Trans Mountain or Kinder Morgan is lawful or environmentally wise.”